LCURIOUSITY

my little exploratory design world

[likkie]

AK - 47

By Likkie Xiong

[lcuriousity]

Lost in Indianapolis (July 14th 2015)

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Michael Bierut Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface

http://designobserver.com/feature/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-typeface/5497

In case you want to justify why you only design with 3 typefaces, here is an indepth reflection of why designers do this.

So what I learned:

How to improve your app in 5 easy steps

01. Gather user data

The first step is formulating a strategy. Start by thinking about the basics - what problem does your app aim to solve? What demographic makes up your userbase?

Think about how your users would utilize your app, not someone who is extremely tech-savvy and not you (the owner). Try to remember that mobile applications are made for the users - and that oftentimes developers will be used to their own design.

02. Meet users

You might not happen upon the same issues as your users, because you've grown accustom to them. Another useful part of this research stage is getting in direct contact with your users.

Go straight to the source - your best bet is forums dedicated to your app's niche. If you're not sure where to look, try some related searches in google: 'appname issues' 'appname problems' 'appname thoughts.' If you want to get extremely specific, try limited your search to the 'discussions' tab in google so that only forum threads with your relevant keywords are displayed.

To really delve into your user-experience issues, try integrating a simple in-app analytics platform. This will give you the inside scoop on your users, with features such as user-session recording, touch heatmaps, realtime data, and pretty much anything else app-related you can think of.

03. Identify pain points

Now comes the arduous step: taking hold of the wealth of data that you've just gathered and turning it into actionable information. Using your analytics platform, try to figure out which features are under-utilized (compared to their intended meaning).

For example, if you've got a sign-up page, yet you're only getting a small amount of people to click through, that's a big red flag. Think about why they aren't taking the intended action and what you can do to fix that. Maybe your design was visually attracting your users to the wrong element or the wrong section of the page.

You can even get into extremely complex and deep parts of your app's user experience flow - which processes are abandoned most often? When looking at user-session recordings, where did the interaction slow down (or come to a complete halt?)That signals a problem in your user experience, because the user had to actively stop and think about the correct place they wanted.

A solid user interface should use the visual hierarchy to keep the flow of your app extremely simple and straightforward. Are there any obvious steps that take much longer than they need to what about processes that are literally annoying and repetitive to complete? You can probably simplify and streamline these operations for a much improved user experience.

04. Test, test, test

This is the trial and error stage. Since you've already figured out the major problems, now you just have to find a suitable solution. Don't relax just yet: this is the most intensive step, because you need to come up with creative ways to improve some extremely complex parts of your application.

Normally, you want to come up with a multitude of different potential solutions for each problem and then test them one by one. One thing to note is that sometimes a bunch of your in-app UI issues will actually all stem from one main element - in that case, try to look for a solution that can solve multiple problems.

Similarly, when in doubt, go for the simple route. It's almost always better to lower the ‘barriers' a user has to go through to accomplish a task. Another smart way to make the entire re-design process quicker is using beta-testers. Either offer this to your friends, or your most involved users, as a way to help you improve the app. Get their opinion on the user experience. Remember, sometimes the 'human element' of testing can give you just the idea you needed.

05. The final iteration

You've gone through the entire process, and now you've got a streamlined application that has an amazing user-experience. But that's not the end, right? No, of course not, now you just have to put the finishing touches on the app design.

At this stage, get inspiration for user interface changes from industry norms (often times people get attached to the 'normal' way something should work), your competitors, or anything really. Try to think outside the box (as cliched as that sounds) and you might stumble upon a great new user interface change.

Overall, just keep the original vision for your app in mind and strive for that ultimate goal. On the other hand, don't get too 'optimization happy' because your original implementation probably had a lot of positive elements, they just needed a little tweaking.

Make sure you're thinking of this process as refining, rather than re-doing your entire app. Finally, just be flexible and allow your testing, analytics, and data to work - as long as follow this process, you'll be on your way to a (near) perfect user interface within just a few days.

http://www.creativebloq.com/app-design/improve-in-5-steps-11410541

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100 Great Fonts for Designers and I suck at design terms

More from the article on Creative Bloq.

What I learned finally:

I didn’t learn shit in design school. 6/10

source: http://www.creativebloq.com/quiz-do-you-know-your-design-terminology

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Fashion Illustration and technique

I bought this and had it shipped in 2 days, amazon prime student account. Worth it. My character design skills needed polishing, and even though I admit I have an eye for fashion, drawing my own designs was a challenge. For my drawing class, it helped me pick up some cheats for drawing clothing textures. Here’s what I did with a team afterwards:

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Nylon: Around the world

Old, but still a good read. Nylon has magazine staff all around the world, each language shares the typography and image treatment all the same. I love their aesthetics, meant for cool girls and quirky style. 

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The Wild: Radiant Issue

You can’t see it here, but it has silver foil stamped typography on the cover. It’s gorgeous in real life. It’s an independent publication, emphasis in fashion, photography and culture. 

What I learned:

15 graphic design interview tips

When you arrive in the interview give us your business card. It should be well designed, memorable, simple and hopefully have a great idea. It should be unique and you should be branded.

Have 8–12 pieces of work in your folio. Put the best pieces at the front and back.

Have at least six questions ready to ask (if you have less, you’ll find they will be answered in the course of the interview).

Take a pad and pen, take it out at the beginning of the interview. You don’t have to take notes, but it looks as if you are organised.

Talk about your work before you show it, but don’t talk too much. This should be one short sentence to engage the interviewer with you. We will be looking at you as you speak.Then show us your work.

Have samples and mock ups.

Bring sketches. We are as interested in how you got to the final solution as the solution itself. You can show other concepts.

Have a copy of your CV (resumé) at the back of the portfolio. Offer it even if we already have it.

On your CV don’t tell people about exam results or part-time jobs that have nothing to do with your chosen career. It pisses us off.

Don’t talk about holiday or money in a first interview.

Give a firm handshake.

Tell us you really want the job (believe it or not, hardly anyone does this).

Ask for our business card(s).

When you get back home, send an email thanking us for the interview.

Make sure your branding is consistent on your business card, CV and email signature.

One for luck: Remember, 80% of design students are crap. We see lots of CVs (95% of which are crap). If you can get into the top 20% you will get a job.

source: http://www.davidairey.com/15-graphic-design-interview-tips/

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I’m Trendy So What

“'I’m Trendy So What’ is a publication and social experiment that acts as a practical synthesis to a large body of research and critical writing conducted into the subject of trends and their subsequent impact on professionalism within the graphic design industry. Whilst the main body of research was a critical evaluation of trends, the publication is an introduction to the platforms Trend List and Trend Generator from the point of the creators and not the critics. This is so that users of this publications views aren’t swayed straight off by the critics but instead form an understanding from the information and build their own opinions through the experiment.”

It has simple design. But it has elements of deconstruction and yet the refinement of clean typography throws you off. It’s a popular design trend in Europe at the moment, I appreciate the idea of the publication too. 

I so want to do this for my portfolio. I’m dying of no sleep however, and I have illustrations to work on instead. 

What I learned:

Paper choices can make the difference in a print product. I’m very poor at figuring out print pieces, so Letterpress class makes that apparent. You learn the history behind design in class, the dinosaur ways of old. But Paper. I could never get my hands on any paper to understand it’s qualities, I don’t live anywhere or have the resources to access a mill. Makes me jealous of places like Chicago or New York with all their resources. 

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How much to make an app?

source: howmuchtomakeanapp.com/estimator

My professor Aaron Ganci showed us this great resource in our Design for Web class last year, I still use this for fun and recommend it for friends and entertainment value. Crew can create your app for you, and has a collection of professionals and services for you to create something great.

I don’t know anybody who’d need the service yet, but I still bookmark their website in case I want to invent shit and make bank.

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Designer Resource: Designers Toolbox

For great references to sizes for any industry standard medium, Designers Toolbox became essential resource over these years when designing for work and class use. I highly recommend this as your graphic resource bookmark.

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Good.is Great

Good.is

This website was brought to my attention when my college Dennis Barbosa and I were discussing a new design for The Campus Citizen. I enjoy reading on this website rather because the design aesthetic makes it interesting to look at. Very well solved in terms of online publication designs.

This week I had learned the hard truth, 'certain’ people don’t quite understand the first thing to web usability in the simplest form, they take don’t take into account designing for other people. They’d rather design for themselves, and even when their product is meant to be read by an audience, they’d rather choose to ignore them. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna opt out of this train wreak before it crashes and burns.

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You suck at Infographics

Source: Wired.com

So you don’t know how to draw. Oh well, with Illustrator and computers, you don’t need to know how to in order to display information with this handy guide. 

To quote the article:

“WE ASKED THE VISUAL.LY CHIEF FOR A FEW TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE DATA POP.

1. Apply a journalist’s code of ethics

An infographic starts with a great data set. Even if you’re not a journalist — but an advertiser or independent contractor, say — you need to represent the data ethically in order to preserve your credibility with your audience. Don’t source from blogs. Don’t source from Wikipedia. Don’t misrepresent your data with images.

2. Find the story in the data

There’s a popular misconception that creating a great infographic just requires hiring a great graphic designer. But even the best designer can only do so much with poor material. Mapping out the key points in your narrative should be the first order of business. “The most accessible graphics we’ve ever done are the ones that tell a story. It should have an arc, a climax and a conclusion,” Langille says. When you find a great data set, mock up your visualization first and figure out what you want to say, before contacting a designer.

3. Make it mobile and personal

As the media becomes more sophisticated, designers are developing non-static infographics. An interactive infographic might seem pretty “sexy,” Langille says, but it’s much less shareable. A video infographic, on the other hand, is both interactive and easy to port from site to site. Another way to involve readers is to create a graphic that allows them to input and share their own information.

4. Don’t let the code out

One of the easiest ways to protect your work is to share it on a community site. Visual.ly offers Creative Commons licensing to users who upload a graphic to the site. When visitors who want to use the graphic grab embed code from the site, the embedded image automatically links back to its creator. Langille suggests adding branding to the bottom of your work and never releasing the actual source file — only the PNG, JPEG, or PDF. And what if your work goes viral without proper credit? For god’s sake, don’t be a pain and demand that the thieves take it down. “It’s better to let it go and ask for a link back and credits on the graphics,” Langille said.”

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Google I/O 2014 - Design

I've been watching a few google developer playlists, to see how the geniuses do it. Turns out, it doesn't take a genius to do design, the way they explain things.

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Grid Systems, essentials.

I’ve bought this in my Junior year, to get a better understanding of editorial and publication design. This can be applied to any medium however, and gives a sort of history lesson for how the grid was utilized in poster design.

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100 Ideas that changed the Web

Currently reading. It’s well designed, and a great record of inventions that changed how we view the web today.

Things I learned today, I found a great place to learn simple rules of typography. Butternick’s Practical Typography. Some of these things I've learned through teachers and practice, but there’s a few things I hadn't known before!

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Kashiwa Sato: Branding and Packaging Star

Uniqlo. I had wondered whom was responsible for the branding and design for this Japanese fast-fashion giant. Branding was flawless, very clean, very japanese, yet was transferable to all languages. I had to know whom it was. 

From his website:

“Born in Tokyo in 1965. Graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in graphic design. Became independent in 2000 after working for Hakuhodo. Established SAMURAI in the same year. A brand architect whose major works include global brand strategies for Uniqlo and Rakuten Group, Seven Eleven Japan’s branding project, symbol mark design and sign schemes for National Art Center Tokyo, total creative direction of Cup Noodle Museum in Yokohama, package design and communication strategy for Kirin Lager Beer, visual identity development and spatial direction for TSUTAYA TOKYO ROPPONGI, product design for NTT Docomo’s cell phone “FOMA N702iD”...................

Visiting professor at Tama Art University, member of Tokyo Art Directors Club, and Steering Committee member of Japan Graphic Designers Association http://kashiwasato.com/” 

His works are consistently strong in typography and easily transferable to package design, incredibly admirable.

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Nico Nico Douga's Crazy Video Innovation is not that crazy.

So I've been thinking of what exactly I could innovate socially with this "trend-tracking" platform I will create, and I've visited all corners of the internet to potentially find my inspiration. My questions were: How to people react to news on the internet? How can they voice their comments? 

With comments...of course. But first of all, What is a "comment" online?

We have YouTube comments, Facebook comments, Reddit replies, Blog comments, Yelp reviews, 4Chan anonymous, Email replies, Tweets. All these are stationary bubbles of user feedback with the voice of a real person on the other side of the screen.

But why do they have to be stationary? Why don't they move with the conversation instead of being an afterthought after everything is said and done? The Japanese video sharing platform Nico Nico Douga have taken this idea an taken off with it. 

Nico Nico Douga functions like the American Youtube, but with different user interactions. Instead of displaying comments below the video, the users comments are displayed ontop of the video. Simply enter your comment at a specific time during your viewing of the video, and it will post. It can get pretty ridiculous.

The words can obscure the moving pictures themselves. But as new comments filter in, old ones are filtered out. Is a playful feature, as a video creator you could get raw feedback at any second of your video to know what the public thinks of your creations. My reading via Metagold.

This week, I learned how to make a sandstorm effect on your photos. A tutorial from tumblr surfaced on my dashboard recently and it gives fantastic results.